Chapter Fourteen: The Dark Archmage

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“What… exactly do you mean by that?”

Ethan’s breathing quickened, and even speaking became difficult.

Ivy replied, “Exactly what I said. All it would take is a letter, and arranging for you to work in the intelligence department of the Containment Bureau shouldn’t be a problem. As far as I know, it isn’t particularly difficult to get in.”

That day, Ethan witnessed the darkness of the Imperial Capital with his own eyes.

According to his plans, he would need another three years to save enough money to rent a place and live in Gear City. By then, he would have accumulated five years of work experience. If fortune favored him, the guildmaster’s letter of recommendation might prove useful. Once he became a regular employee of the Containment Bureau, he would have to start from the bottom. New recruits were generally assigned to border towns. If they performed exceptionally well and won the favor of their superiors, they might eventually be transferred back to headquarters.

That would take another five or six years, more or less.

And all of it depended on exceptionally good luck. In reality, the work of a low-ranking intelligence officer was hardly safe. They had to handle cursed objects on a frequent basis, and whenever a major incident occurred in the town where they were stationed, they had to report to the front lines of the anomalous site.

Ten years of struggle, combined with the kind of luck that would make one’s ancestors’ graves blaze with green smoke, amounted to nothing more than the weight of a single letter to Ivy.

It was too dark!

It was darker than the followers of an evil god!

Ethan often felt that he was not dark enough to fit into this world. No wonder, in his previous life, he had constantly seen people hanging slogans like “I don’t want to work hard anymore” from their mouths.

He gazed deeply at Ivy. Clearly, she had inherited the finest qualities of noble blood: she was young and beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful woman in Creekwood, and possessed a graceful figure. More importantly, she had a kind heart.

“Lady Ivy, we have worked together for some time now.”

To demonstrate his resolve, he lifted the bowl and drained the meat broth in a single gulp.

He had always believed that he possessed the potential to become a dark archmage. He had merely been missing an opportunity. “You see, I didn’t run away with your gun. That proves I’m brave. And I’m also a little smarter than the other people in town.”

Those had all been Ivy’s own words.

“If you’re going to talk, then talk. Why are you rubbing your hands together?”

Ivy frowned. After setting down the bowl, Ethan had immediately taken on the appearance of someone about to do something shady. And now that he was bare-chested, he was truly difficult to look at.

“You want me to write you a letter of recommendation?”

“I’ve always felt that I’m no worse than those people. I’ve simply been lacking a platform.”

“What would I get out of it?”

“If I make something of myself at the Containment Bureau, everyone will know that you have an eye for talent—that you can discover a gifted individual in an overlooked border city.”

Ethan felt that this was probably what people called a life-changing opportunity. Yet he was pessimistic about the outcome, for a very simple reason: as Ivy had just pointed out, he currently had no value to offer her or the Margaret family. All he could do was sell them a grand vision.

“Think of it as an investment in the future. How does that sound?”

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He believed he could make something of himself in the Containment Bureau’s intelligence department. This was not blind confidence. There were simply too many people in that department who did nothing. Anyone who showed up to work on time would look like an exemplary employee devoted to his post.

“Then prove it to me.”

“How?”

“While you were asleep, an officer from the Containment Bureau came and collected the cursed object. They learned of Riverside Town’s destruction and mentioned that the frequency of anomalous incidents had been rising recently. Headquarters is considering establishing intelligence stations in the border cities. Since you refuse to be my assistant, you can be my colleague instead.”

Ivy continued, “From today onward, I am the station chief, and you are an investigator.”

“Is this station actually legitimate?”

Ethan was skeptical. Ivy made it sound far too easy, almost as though she were trying to bluff him.

After all, this was not a matter of slipping someone into a logistics department. They were establishing a station on the front lines in earnest. Even if headquarters truly had such plans, they would hardly entrust them to an aristocratic heir who had gotten the position through connections and did no actual work.

“Of course it’s legitimate.”

“Does it come with an official appointment? I won’t be some intern or temporary contractor, will I? Will headquarters recognize it?”

“Yes.”

Ivy did not so much as blink.

Although it did not exist yet, there was nothing a letter could not solve.

“You’ll have an official investigator’s identity card, a complete performance-assessment system, and the right to participate in the quarterly commendations. I’ll be staying in Creekwood for some time. As long as your performance is satisfactory during that period, I’ll write you a letter of recommendation and have you transferred to headquarters.”

Ethan thought it over.

Previously, Ivy had given him her service weapon. Even knowing that he might run away, she had still chosen to trust him.

If they worked together, she would probably make a good superior.

“Deal. No, wait—I mean, I’ll work hard.”

In this day and age, a good superior was harder to find than a lantern in broad daylight. And this particular superior even knew the current director of the Containment Bureau.

Failing to leap straight to the destination was somewhat less dark than he would have liked, but this arrangement would at least save Ethan several years of struggle. It also removed the element of luck from the equation. He had never been especially fortunate. After all, what lucky person would be transported into a world this fraught with danger?

As the saying went, there was no harm without comparison. His previous life had not been particularly satisfactory either, but it had never been so terrible that he had to worry about being kidnapped or assassinated every time he stepped outside.

That was, assuming Ivy had not lied to him.

Ethan wondered whether a noble young lady of such stature would really deceive a poor man like him.

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Margaret.

He silently repeated Ivy’s surname to himself. It seemed vaguely familiar. When he reached the sixth repetition, he suddenly jolted as though struck by lightning and slapped his thigh with all his strength. The golden-haired woman atop Ivy’s head was startled and silently hurled abuse at him.

He had remembered a name.

Diana Margaret.

“May I ask… Queen Diana is your—”

Ivy did not answer. In a cold voice, she said, “Do not mention my surname outside from now on.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

That was what Ethan said aloud, but inwardly he began to speculate. Could this noble young lady have secretly run away from home?

“And don’t call me that either. Once we begin working, we’ll use codenames. Mine hasn’t arrived yet.”

Ethan understood.

He had done his homework beforehand. Every regular employee of the Containment Bureau was assigned a codename for reasons of operational security. Given the nature of their work, the Bureau did everything possible to ensure that their families would not be targeted. In recent years, however, the number of Bureau employees had grown steadily, and the codenames had become increasingly strange as a result.

“No problem, Miss My Hair!”

The codename was far too long. Ethan felt that shortening it to three words would make it much easier to say.

“Gah!”

Ivy drew in a sharp breath. At last, a flicker of emotion appeared on her usually expressionless face. Ethan watched as she raised her right hand several times, her fingers curling into a shape resembling the claws of a vengeful ghost. It was only aristocratic etiquette that kept her from sinking those vicious claws into his forehead.

For the first time, Ethan heard the voice of someone whose teeth were nearly being ground to powder.

“I said our identity cards haven’t arrived yet! We don’t have codenames!”

Her chest heaved violently. It took a full minute for her to suppress the urge to kill Ethan with a single slap.

Ivy felt that her teeth were about to break from clenching them.

“You seem to have recovered from your illness. You can begin work this afternoon.”

With the new station being established, they naturally had to arrange the basic infrastructure.

“Go change your clothes. We’re going to Hearth Bay in a little while.”